This invention relates to labels, and in particular to labels which have pressure sensitive adhesive on one side which are used as tabs or indexes, having a portion of the label which protrudes from the edge of a host sheet to which it is attached. The invention further relates to the delivery of such self tabbing labels on a release coated sheet in combination with wirebound books and for use as accessory labeling sheets in combination with ringed binders.
This invention relates to self tabbing labels formed with pressure sensitive adhesive on the entire back portion but with only an upper and lower tab portion attached to a base portion, where the hinge axis for folding the upper portion onto the lower portion is equidistant from the edge of the upper and lower tab portions. This invention relates to self tabbing labels where the hinge axis between upper and lower tab portions has a fold hint for encouraging a straight fold of the upper tab portion onto the lower tab portion. The new aspect here is a fold hint which is marked not only with printed indicia, but alternatively is marked by way of a score, fold perforation with sufficient landed area between perfs to prevent tearing but to ease folding by weakening the papers fibers, and to a fold hint formed by an extended detent in the hinge portion from one or both sides of the label edge. This invention relates to self tabbing labels formed with oversized base portions for printing or drawing upon. The oversized portion may be rectangular or have a preferred shape. Thus this invention relates to such self tabbing labels formed according to this invention, which may be customized or mass customized by way of marking or shaping the oversized tab portion, such as printing of icons or images, for example sports objects like base balls, soccer, bails, foot balls and the like, thereon, or otherwise shaping the oversized portion in the form of such a sports object. The invention relates to columns or arrays of such self tabbing labels delivered on a release coated sheet where said release coated sheet is punched for use in a wirebound book or for use with a ringed binder, and to the combination of such a release coated sheet comprising self tabbing labels according to this invention in combination with wirebound books, master label marking sheets, and margin marked separator leaves or in combination with master label marking sheets and margin marked separator leaves for use as accessory to a ringed binder or in combination with a ringed binder.
Self tabbing labels have been available with symmetrical sets of hinged tabs and base portions, where the hinge axis is equidistant from the outer perimeter edge of the respective base portions, and where the entire back portion of the tab configuration is coated with pressure sensitive adhesive. In addition, self tabbing labels have been available where there is a base portion coated with adhesive on the reverse side, and there is a tab portion adjoining said base portion that is free of adhesive. The problem with the self tabbing labels with symmetrical tab and base portions on either side of the hinge axis is that the label is larger, using more material. It is more difficult to fold these over and get them to align evenly since you are handling a larger adhesive portion of material. The hinge axis does not provide for a fold hint in these prior art variations. Further, the base portion is limited in size, preventing the use of the base portion as a differentiating characteristic of the label. Labels that provide for a base portion with adhesive and a tab portion with no adhesive can use half the material than the symmetrical type, but are more expensive to form due to the fact that the material needs to have a banded strip of adhesive applied. Typically, this label type needs to be formed from stiffer material since there is not a fold over portion which serves to strengthen the label. This also raises the cost of the label. Self tabbing labels have not provided an oversized base portion or an oversized base portion which has a distinctive shape, thereby limiting their use to the tab portion as the sole basis for making the label visually differentiated. Wire books have been provided for where the pages are pre separated by dividers, and where the page count between dividers is preset. Such preset page counts often do not anticipate the requirements of the user who would otherwise choose to tab a section with an application specific division of pages. Binder index tabs have been available which have multi-cut tabs which are precollated according to tab position and provided for as a set. These kits are expensive to produce requiring a die cut for each divider and requiring collating by tab position in packaging.
The invention therefore relates to self tabbing labels covered on one side with pressure sensitive adhesive, which are comprised solely of an upper and a lower tab portion used for marking hingedly attached one to the other, which when folded over with the upper portion folded over onto the lower portion forms a section which protrudes from a host sheet to which it is attached, where the lower base portion is coterminous with a base portion which is used to attach the self tabbing label to a host sheet. The invention further relates to self tabbing labels where the hinge axis between the upper and lower portions has a fold hint therein. The invention further relates to such self tabbing labels where the base portion is oversized and may also take on a distinctive shape.
It is the object of this invention to provide a self tabbing label which has only an upper and lower tab portion for folding over to provide the tab portion that protrudes from the edge of a host page to which it is attached. By requiring that only the upper portion be folded over reduces material costs, increases packing density of labels by shrinking the overall size of the label, and improves ease of use in both marking and applying the label to the host page. Further, by retaining the upper and lower portion, the tab portion that extends outside the sheet is reinforced, being double thickness once folded over, a feature that is appealing to the touch.
It is the object of this invention to provide a fold hint which makes it easy for the user to fold the upper portion of the tab onto the lower portion of the tab. By providing the fold hint, the label can be perfectly folded, a requirement for keeping a categorized book looking neat.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an enlarged base area which also may take on an application specific shape. By providing the enlarged base portion as an option, this base portion increases label adhesion by using a larger surface area for attaching to the host sheet. The area also provides for personalization with drawing, marking or imprinting, and for categorization according to shape, where the shape of the base portion can be used to differentiate each label, one from the next. By offering a larger base area, application or category specific printing may further be used to improve label differentiation. Labeling by type, where the label itself can be easily be distinguished one from another is considered an important improvement and useful feature in assisting the user to associate each label with a different contents.
Yet an additional object of this invention is to provide for a wire bound book with selftabbing features. Such a wirebound book would be comprised of a self tabbing sheet according to this invention, wired into the wirebound book either in front of the book cover or directly after the book cover. The cover can be marked as a master contents sheet on the outer margin edge with lines for entering tabbed section contents, where the lines are separated to allow for subsequent positioning of labels aligned with such contents line on leaves following the master contents sheet. Alternatively, a master contents sheet can be incorporated in the wire book following the release coated sheet comprising an array or column of pressure sensitive labels, for recording the contents at the xe2x80x9ctop levelxe2x80x9d of the book, allowing quick reference to the named contents sections of the categorization. The leaves of the book can be provided with hash markings along the outer margin edge to show positions for aligning labels. Alternatively, separator pages can be wired in with leaves with predetermined page counts between separator pages, and separator pages may be hash marked along their outer margin edge to show position locations for the self tabbing labels. This form of book provides for a user separable categorization of the book without having to precollate or deterministically separate pages by section. A further version of this type would provide for the selftabbing label sheet and a master label sheet and separator sheets as a kit for use with and attachment to a ringed binder.
In accordance with this invention what is provided is (see detailed description of the invention).